


Burning Desires

by orphan_account



Series: Burning Desires [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Adorable, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Fluff, Fluff to Smut, God Damnit Jean, Humor, M/M, Mild Language, Smut, Story, first fic, friendship to relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-03 09:31:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1739744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marco is forced to go to college, but doesn't know anyone else that is going. His first day there, he just wanders around the campus getting lost, and makes a couple of friends along the way. Then, he meets his roommate, Jean, who appears to be a really mean guy, but is super sweet on the inside. Marco begins to find himself daydreaming about Jean comes to realize that he has a huge crush on him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Stranger to Trost

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [My Beating Heart](https://archiveofourown.org/works/991568) by [Lownly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lownly/pseuds/Lownly). 



(Marco's POV)

  
Full of misery and dread, I slowly stepped away from my mother’s car. Today is the day that I start college at Trost University. Receiving a full scholarship for my academic excellence, I was forced by my mother to go and use the money that I had been awarded. Growing up with just my mom and my younger brother, caused me to work harder than the rest of the kids growing up, after the loss of my father. All my life, I tried my very best to keep to keep my grades high and to always have a smile plastered on my face. I never wanted my mother to worry about me, mostly because she was already busy enough. She works two jobs to support the family and always tries her best to see that we are happy. Today seemed to change all of that, I realized that for the first time in my life, that I’m alone.

Trost University was a lengthy drive away from my hometown of Jinae, and to top it off, I know no one who is going here. It seems like my whole life has pushed me to this moment, but I feel as if I don’t belong. Although I knew that no matter what decisions I make, I will still be loved by my family and friends, I just felt miserable as soon as I stepped out of the car.

  “Hey, Sweetie, don’t look so down!” my mother called, “Put on a smile and go meet someone, that way you’ll have someone to talk to! Remember that if you need any help at all, I’m always here for you!” Although she had a bright warm smile on her face, I could still see past it. She was exhausted, from the bags under her eyes to her slightly graying hair, she looked as if she would fall apart any second.

  I couldn’t resist and flashed a warm smile her way, after all, she took her time off to drive me all the way here. Her words felt somewhat reassuring, but it didn’t really change how I felt overall. I am still alone and I know it will take months before I actually befriend someone.

  “I’ll try Mom!”, I called, “I’ll keep in touch as much as I can, see you in a couple of months!”

  “Ok, keep up your grades and make plenty of friends! I love you!”, she stated just as she began to roll up the window, slowly giving me the last glimpse of her for the next four months.

  “Love you, too!”, I called back before the window fully closed. With that, my mother drove off to head back to Jinae and pick up my little brother from school.  
Already feeling homesick, I slowly walked in the herded crowd of students to the main building to find out where I will be spending the longest four months of my life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  "Uh, Marco Bodt?", asked the woman to confirm my name. "Your room number is D208. I hope you enjoy your time at Trost!", she said with a wink.

My face flushing from what she could've possibly meant, I replied, "Oh, um, thanks!", adding in a bright smile.  
As I made my way away from the desk, I was put to the task of trying to weave through the swarm of students to get to my dormitory. After losing my way several times while trying to read the campus map, I eventually got there before 3:00. I made my way up the flight of stairs until I got to the floor labeled "D". I walked through the door and accidentally walked into someone.

  "Oh, sorry..." I said, slowly looking up at who I had encountered.

The guy I walked into was wearing black converses, a darker shade of denim jeans, an unzipped, black sweat jacket, and a light gray t-shirt. He had a lean build and had a very unique haircut. The sides of his head were cut close to his head and was brown, while the top of his head had about an inch or two of hair, but blond. Upon his face, he wore a scowl like no other. It clearly showed that he had no intentions of being here and was forced to go.

  "Watch here you're going, or you'll get yourself hurt." He stated while walking past me.

I was confused as to whether he was contemplating hurting me or if he was just telling me to watch out. Without thinking too much of it, I proceeded to try and find my room.  
After several wrong turns and help from some other students, I eventually got to room D208. I inserted my key, pushed the door open, and walked in. It wasn't a really big room, but it was just big enough for two college students to live in. Since it's a freshman 'a dormitory, the bathrooms and showers are public, leaving us with just a room.

In the room were two beds with a couple of pillows and a comforter, two dressers, two desks, and a small tv upon a table. Although it seemed particularly empty, eventually it would be filled to the brim with papers from classes and other things to bring back home.

My roommate had already been here since their luggage was thrown carelessly on one of the beds. Assuming that was where they decided they were going to sleep, I put my luggage on the other bed and began to unpack. Soon enough, all my clothes were in the dresser closest to my new bed and my keepsakes from home set up on one of the desks, I decided to go out and explore the campus to try and familiarize myself with the layout.

After walking out the door and locking it behind me, I began strolling down the hallway and observing the people passing and the new environment I would be occupying for almost a year. The swarm of students is now just a trickle of students who just got here, or are leaving. After a while of trying to retrace my steps, I ran into the guy from earlier. From farther away, his head kind of looks like that of a horse, but I would never say that to his face. As I passed, I could tell he remembered me by the glare he was giving me. The unspoken words communicated made me fully aware not to mess with him. Hopefully, I won't into him for a while and he'll forget about our whole encounter.

Finally able to exit the building, I began walking down the cobblestone path and observed what was around me. Even though it was early September, the trees were beginning to change color slightly, the sun was setting sooner, and was becoming cooler. Fall had to be one of my favorite seasons because of all the colors that filled the trees and littered the ground.  
While observing the beautiful campus, I was rudely interrupted by some reckless brunette running with one goal in mind. Following him was what appeared to be his sister and their friend. The sister looked to be to more responsible one of the group, but quiet. As she passed, she glanced over at me realizing what the brunette had done, but carried on trying to catch up with him. Finally, the friend, was trying his best to stay with them, but having a lot of trouble. By the time he reached where I was, he was already out of breath.

  "Sorry about him, he creates a path of destruction wherever he goes, so it seems...", he said once he regained his composure.

  "Don't worry about it! No harm, no foul." I said trying to reassure him. "Are you three freshmen here also?"

  "Oh, um, yea. My name's Armin, again sorry for my friend...", he apologized once more.

  "I'm Marco, it's nice to meet someone. I thought I wouldn't make a friend for months..." I said chuckling. "Did you guys just arrive or something?"

  “Yea, Eren’s mom just dropped us off, traffic was killer trying to get here.”, Armin replied with a sigh. “I should probably try to catch up with them before they try to find me, or worse don’t…”

With that I let out a loud laugh, although I knew he was being serious, it didn’t seem likely that friends would do that. Although, from my small experience with the brunette, I think Armin called him Eren, he would probably forget everything if the two weren’t constantly by his side.

  “Ok, I’ll see you around campus then?”, I asked and flashing a smile, to know that the laugh wasn’t meant to mock him.

  “Yea, sure. Do you have a phone, then we could meet up later?”, Armin replied. Making friends seemed a lot easier than I was expecting. At least, I will have someone to talk to now.

  “Here, lend me your phone and I’ll type it in…” I said, little did he know what I was going to put the contact as.  
Armin willingly handed me his phone, without suspecting a thing. As I pulled up his contact list to enter a new one, I began to enter my number. When it asked for my name, I typed in

  “Freckles”. It was a popular nickname that stuck with me as a child and I had grown to accept the fact that I had so many.

  “Freckles? Why not just put your name?”, asked Armin, who was about to change it back.

  “It’s just something my friends called me throughout my life, and I’ve grown attached to it. And have you seen my face, it’s like a minefield?!”, I said while throwing my hands up into the air and laughing.

  “Oh, ok. Well I guess I’ll talk to you later Marco! See ya!”, and with that, he ran off to try and find his friends who ran off without second thought of their friend.

From that encounter, my stomach decided it was time to get something to eat, by making a loud gurgling noise that drew the attention of the people around me. With my faced flushed, I decided to find out what places were around that served something to eat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After eating alone at the local cafeteria, I decided that it was getting a little too dark to stay out much longer and that I should head back to my room for the night. Slowly walking back up the cobblestone path, I made sure to look around just in case another person would like to run into me just for the fun of it. After my paranoia settled, I looked up to stare at the rising moon, half obscured by the clouds, when the bushes next to me began to rustle.

  “Is someone there?”, I called out, feeling like I was in a cliche horror movie.

After no response, or any other movement from the bush, I decided that I wasn’t going to hang around any longer for the fear that the campus will find a dead body in the morning. Walking faster than I was earlier, I made it to the large double doors and walked in, but took a look back just be to sure, and saw other students walking along and talking with their friends.

Making my way up the stairs, I spotted a familiar trio giggling and strolling along. Walking up the the blond I befriended, I tapped him on the shoulder. With a small jump, he turned to look at me and a smile spread across his face, realizing that it was only me.

  “Oh, hey Marco!”, he stated, then looking back at his friend Eren who was mildly confused.

  “Hey Armin, I’m guessing he has already forgotten?”, I asked, knowing all too well of the answer.

  “Forgotten what?”, the brunette asked becoming more puzzled with each second that passed.

  “You ran through him earlier, without even apologizing, leaving me to talk to him… At least he was nice about it.”, Armin exclaimed.

  “It’s quite alright. Like I said again, no harm, no foul.”, I said trying not to cause any tension between us.

  “See Armin, he’s cool about it! Oh, and sorry about that, I just really wanted to get here as soon as possible…” Eren said, trying to cover himself through excuses.

  “It’s no problem, just try to be a little less reckless next time.”, I said trying to help Eren. Both the girl and Armin let out a laugh, almost at the same time. I could tell that they have been trying to get that point across to him his whole life.

  “What’s so funny?”, Eren asked wildly confused once again. With that, I started chuckling because of how oblivious he really was. After that, we talked for a little while about where we came from and a little bit about ourselves, truly kindling our friendship. I learned that the girl’s name is Mikasa, and that she isn’t Eren’s sister, technically. She was adopted after her parents got into a severe accident, killing them both. Eren’s family was close to Mikasa’s family, so they decided the best thing to do was to accept her into theirs.

After an hour or two, we split up, Mikasa going to the girls’ dormitory and Eren and Armin went to their room. I was unsure of what to do at first, but decided that I should follow in their footsteps and head off to my room as well. After climbing what felt like the never ending stairs to my floor, I had the joys of trying to track my room all over again. After another ten minutes or so wasted on that, I finally reached my room and unlocked it. Hearing rustling inside, I guessed it had to be my roommate, and wanted to give off a good first impression. So I checked my shirt, wiped down my pants, and fixed my hair, and walked in.

When I walked in, I was greeted by a familiar scowl and realized my first impression was already gone. My roommate is the guy with the unique haircut and intimidating demeanor. With a surprised look on both of our faces, I decided to break the silence,

  “Hi, again…”


	2. A New Friend...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco and his roommate, Jean become friends and try to survive their first weeks of college together...

  "Great.", my roommate said with an added groan. "Of all the people, it had to be someone I've already run into..." He was obviously irritated about something, I began to ponder if he hated me for some unknown reason. Was it just the way I looked? Dressed? Talked even? He seemed like a typical "Too cool for school" kind of guy, having no interest in anything around him. When I walked in, it didn't seem like he was doing much in the way of preparing for class for tomorrow morning, he was just sitting there. Maybe he was waiting for me to come in, but was greatly expecting someone else. Trying to keep him calm, I decided to to give him a chance.

 

  "What's so bad about that?", I asked as I walked over to my bed and sat down. "I mean, it's not like I know who you are personally, despite your poor first impression..." To be honest, when I first saw him sitting there, I was scared he was going to beat me up from the glare I received, although, now it seemed like he permanently wore that as his facial expression.

 

  "That's exactly what I'm talking about!", he yelled, then threw his hands up to cover his face. He then proceeded to try and communicate through his hands, but all I heard was, "I... Leas... Make... Nnn.. Nd..."

 

Unable to decipher what he was trying to say, I had asked him to repeat himself. It was a risky thing to say, feeling that my roommate was fully capable of disposing of me, without anyone wondering where I went for the first week.

 

Carefully constructing my words, I said, "Umm, I'm sorry... Could you repeat what you just said, I couldn't hear you..."

 

Slowly dragging his hands down his now flushed face, he mumbled, "I just wanted to make at least one friend..." After he stopped talking, he just stared at the ground, too embarrassed to look up at me. I felt horrible. I mistook him as a cold hearted criminal who simply hated everyone. He was just the opposite, he was a lonely guy who seemed to be in the same situation I'm in. He just wanted to make at least one friend during his time at college and maybe none of his friends came to the same college as him.

 

  "I have no problem being your friend...", I said a little too quickly, making me say my next words a bit slower. "I mean, as long as you don't have a problem with it..." Once I said that, he threw his head up rather quick, and gave me a very confused look. As he was trying to think, his eyebrows furrowed, making him have that same scowl look he had earlier. I guess instead of assuming that he was angry at the world, it would've been nice to know that was his thinking face...

 

After several moments of silence, he finally blinked and asked, "Why?", with his eyebrows still furrowed.

 

 "Why? Umm...", I repeated, deciding whether or not to tell him the truth. The truth was, I didn't really have any friends here, well besides Armin and the others, it seemed like starting from scratch at my whole life. I could always tell him that one friend more never hurt, when in actuality, it would be one of the best things that could possibly happen. Finally deciding that the truth would be the safest option, I said, "I didn't have any friends coming here, and I at least wanted to be friends with-"

 

 "But I was such an asshole earlier! Do you not remember the glares you got from me, or my snark ass comment?", he exclaimed. He was turning red, but I didn't know if it was from anger or embarrassment. It seemed like we were both missing each others' points, he seemed so intent on pushing me away, even though I clearly stated that I would gladly be his friend. Ultimately confused as to what was happening, I decided to sit there to see how he would react to the silence. Soon enough, he added, "I turn everyone away... I never needed friends anyway." He turned to walk out the door, but I stopped him, but not by using force.

 

  "Then forget about it! The past is in the past, let's just forget about it and start over...", I said, trying my hardest not to let my sadness through. He acts like he never had a friend before, was he really that socially awkward that he never has had a friend? His words echoed in my mind, like a broken record, "I never needed friends anyway." It seemed hard to believe, I mean, everyone has at least one friend as they grow up. Trying to stop the voices in my head from making a bad decision, I quickly blurted out, "I'm Marco Bodt, and you are?"

 

My roommate stood there looking shocked. He seemed as if he was unable to comprehend what I had just said and was trying to say something, but ended up looking like a fish out of water. After a few seconds of awkward silence between the two of us, he final shut his jaw and began to furrow his brow yet again. Several times, he tried to speak, but nothing would come out and went back to thinking. Once I had just about enough of the silence, he spoke.

 

  "I still don't understand how you are just able to push everything aside and still want to be my friend after what I did to you..." he said rather quietly. "Are you sure you want me to be your friend? I mean, people normally just stay out of my way or don't stay my friend for long..."

 

Seeming lost as to how anyone could live like this, I simply looked at him, smiled, and nodded my head, confirming my answer. After he realized I wasn't backing down from my offer, his face immediately became flushed and stammered as to what he was trying to say, becoming even redder than previously before. To release some of the built up tension in the room, I let out a laugh, making him even more embarrassed.

 

I soon realized, that my laughter was not making the situation any better, and tried to control myself. To help ease some of the pressure on him, I said, "Sorry... I mean, yes. First impressions don't mean everything, and as I was saying before, I wanted to at least be friends with the person I was going to be spending almost a year living with. I don't have any friends that came to Trost, so it is like starting all over..." After I said that, it immediately reminded me of all my friends and family back in Jinae, making me homesick yet again.

 

After a few seconds of homesickness, a voice brought me back to the real world. Unable to hear what he had said due to my thoughts, I asked him to repeat himself once more.

 

  "I said, I never really had any friends growing up, so I don't really know what to do...", he almost whispered, while looking away. I don't think I would've heard him had there been the slightest distraction. I felt really sorry for the guy, I've had plenty of friends growing up, from every age group. I got along with everyone in Jinae and never had a single problem until I reached college.

 

I got up and walked over to where my desk was and looked at a picture I had of my family. I then looked over at him and stated, "Well first of all, you can tell me what your name is!" Adding in a smile to help comfort him.

 

  "It's Jean... Jean Kirschtein.", he said, with a shuffle of his feet he turned towards the door to leave. It was too late for him to really go anywhere on campus, seeing as though a lot of the shops were closed by 9:00pm. My curiosity itching at my insides, but my stomach telling me not to bother him any more, left me in a mess of emotions.

My mind soon won over the feeling in my stomach, I asked, "Where are you going? It's too late to go anywhere on campus, and classes begin tomorrow!" Unless Jean planned on leaving campus there was no real use of going out, unless he wanted to clear his head...

  "I just... need to go for a walk...", he replied, slightly turning his head so I could see his eye. I could tell he was more confused than ever as to what had just happened, but I didn't plan on leaving him alone to deal with them.

  "Um... Do you mind if I come along?", I asked quietly, but just loud enough so he could hear me. I was worried that with all of these emotions, he would be reckless and get himself into something that he would regret later, and I felt obligated to do so, seeing that he never had someone to call a friend. It seemed to be the nicest thing I could do at that moment, and was surprised by his answer.

  "Sure...", he stated, and proceeded to open the door and walk out.


	3. Warming Up to Jean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco begins to learn more about who Jean is, and quickly become really good friends. Also, Marco is drawn into the world of the internet and all of its mysteries thanks to Jean.

Upon leaving the room, I turned around and locked the door, whether everyone was the same age, and if there is constant surveillance, there is always a potential of getting robbed. Jean, without even looking back, continued to walk slowly down the hall, I could only guess that he was thinking. His posture was slumped, and his head was down, facing the newly cleaned floor, which is now covered in dirt. Although still feeling depressed by both Jean's slight backstory and my utter homesickness, I quickly jogged over to where he was, and walked in tune to his steps. We walked in silence, besides the chatter of passing by groups and the noise coming from from the dorm rooms. Keeping myself occupied and giving Jean time to pull together his thoughts, I observed the design of the hallway. A couple of times, I caught Jean looking at me, then he would quickly look back at the ground when I went to look in his direction. It seemed suspicious at first, but I guess that he would say what was on his mind eventually.

Catching him one again, I decided to ask, "Do I have something on my face?" Taking my sweatshirt sleeve to rub my face in case there was, because that would've been very embarrassing. Nothing came off my face and onto the sweater, so I looked at him with a raised eyebrow as to ask why he was continually looking at me.

  "Uh... No, but you do have a lot of freckles...", he said. It seemed like the first thing he said that wasn't full of sarcasm, embarrassment, or any other emotion, just normal speech. It was... odd. For the short time that I have known him, he had only used one emotion when he spoke. I liked it when he talked like this, it seemed like he was finally beginning to accept the fact that we are friends.

  "Yea, I guess I do! I've had them since I was young... They seem like they just keep multiplying!", I said chuckling. Every time I looked in the mirror, it seemed like a had more than the last time that I checked. When I was younger it always spooked me into thinking that my family had some sort of disease, because none of my friends at that time had freckles and I had no idea why they were there. When I talked to my mom, she said they were just a discoloration of the skin, easing my worries.

  "You're probably in the sun a lot...", he whispered.

Sort of taken a back by the random piece of information, I contemplated it. I mean, my tan complexion could easily say that I was outside a lot, but truthfully my days usually consisted of outdoor activities; from going outside and just lounging, hanging out with friends, to playing sports for fun after school. So, it did seem logical that I would have a lot more freckles then I would if I stayed inside most of my time. Going outside held a lot of fun activities, at least compared to being inside. Although my mother would do anything to make my brother and I happy, I refused to let her buy me game consoles and a computer tower. It was way too expensive for her to maintain the cost of anyway, and I find it more fun to be active and socialize with everyone.

  "Where'd you learn that?, I asked. He didn't seem to be the kind of person to just look up random facts about freckles... Or to look up random information for the knowledge... It seemed out of place for him to know this and greatly peaked my interest in him. Looking like he wanted nothing to do with anything school related topics, such as the origin of freckles and why they appear.  He came off as the guy who would do anything to escape a lecture, or ditch school altogether.

  "I saw it online... I think it was on tumblr.", he said, taking a glance over at me. That made more sense, his skin was slightly tan, but he wasn't like me. I've read about that even the quietest and loneliest of people can be very active online and can be like a completely different person. Hiding behind a computer gives you complete anonymity and you really can't be traced back to it, so your pretty much safe from others.

  "Oh, that's cool. You know, I've never really used a computer before..." I said, slowly mumbling out that last part. Jean abruptly stopped and gave me the most stupefied look imaginable. He just stood there staring at me, his eyes wide in shock. Usually people tell me that I'm pulling their leg, or lying, but Jean's reaction was a first for me. I was almost convinced he was having some form of stroke until he finally spoke.

  "No way... Is that even possible?", he said, with that stupefied look still plastered on his face. It seemed odd that he believed me so quickly. Normally it takes several minutes for me to explain why, but I guess he still doesn't understand the whole concept of friends, and that they do joke around with each other.

Trying to stifle the upcoming laughter bubbling from my throat because of his reaction, I said, "Uh, *giggle* yea, you see *giggle* my fam-" From there I couldn't hold back my laughter anymore, and it broke free. I laughed so hard, my sides were beginning to hurt. Jean's face became puzzled as he tried to take in what had just happened. As I tried to settle down, I sat in a nearby window frame to help me regain my breath.

Jean's face became red once more, but this time with subtle anger, mistaking my laughter as lying to him. "Are you lying to me? That's cruel, you actually had me believing that you never used a computer before!", he shouted. He crossed his arms at me and was about to walk away, when I began to talk.

  "Sorry, but the face you were making, caught me really off guard, and was just hilarious!" I said, with a little snort of laughter coming through once more. "But it is true, I've only used a computer in school, so typing essays or doing projects. My mom already works to jobs to keep a stable income for my brother and I to live comfortably, and the last thing I want her to do, is to worry about increases in the electricity bill and the cost of one of them..."

  "Oh...", he said, almost too quiet to hear. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lash out at you. I thought you were making fun of me... People say I'm too gullible, so when I thought you were laughing at me for being such..." This kid has been through so much in his life that makes him isolated from everyone else, just because he's different. I can't help but to feel really sorry for him, but I have nothing except words to help him... His head was turned to face the floor, but at a distance away, so he wouldn't have to look at any part of me. I could tell he was completely uncomfortable, and decided to change to topic a bit to help ease so of the embarrassment.

  "It's ok. But, yea, I've never understood anything about social medias or youtube, well besides the fact that youtube has like every video under the sun... Or so I've heard.", I said quietly, almost to ashamed to say the words. The switch of embarrassment hit me hard, and I didn't know how to deal with it, except to copy Jean and look down at my feet. I've never been embarrassed by this conversation before, but for some odd reason, it seems like out of all the worst possible things for me to say, I picked the one that dealt the biggest blow.

Expecting some sort of remark to come flying out of Jean's mouth, I sat there waiting, accepting the impending horror, but it never came. Instead, what happened surprised me more than anything. Jean grabbed onto my wrist and pulled me off the window sill, and was pulling to the direction from where we came from. Hesitant to move, I tried to ask why we were heading back to the room, but I couldn't manage the words and simply followed Jean back to our dorm room. Sprinting down the hall, still unable to form words, I became quickly out of breath from the lack of breathing I was doing. Tugging back on Jean's grip, he quickly looked back and saw that I needed to breathe and let go.

After hunching over and leaning on my legs, panting, I slowly felt the oxygen return to my body, but not before asking, "Why are... we heading back... to our room? I thought... you wanted to... go for... a walk?" It seemed like a sudden change of character for Jean, going from a distant and isolated person to a giddy person full of energy. I could only guess he thought of something and decided to go back to grab it, but why he was dragging me along made no sense.

  "Just come on, I have something to show you!", he said, with wild excitement in his eyes. I didn't know whether to be very cautious or this new found emotion of his, or to just tag along and hope everything goes alright. Taking both into account, I decided to just trust him this once and see what he is so excited for. I didn't say anything unusual, well besides that fact I've never used a computer, but most people sort of accept that and leave it be. Jean seems to be the exact opposite of everyone else, but I guess that's what makes him so fascinating...

  "Fiiiiiinnneeee.", I groaned, slowly walking behind him as he started to run once more. Completely refusing to move any faster, he got to the room, but for some reason didn't go inside. We were just given our keys today, did he lose them that quick? So I decided to ask, once I was within talking distance, "Did you lose your keys already? I mean, we only just got them today!"

With another of his glares fired right at me, he responded, "I just left them in the room... I think they fell out onto the bed when I was sitting down."

  "Oh, ok, watch out." I said, while shouldering him to move over to access the key slot. After opening the door, he jumped in front of me and ran toward his luggage. Closing the door, and locking it, I walked over to my bed and kicked off my shoes. Jean, unable to find what he was looking for from his first bag, pulled another one out from underneath his bed and began to rummage through that one. Taking the opportunity to sit, I walked over to his bed and plopped down to see what he was trying to look for. Finally pulling out a silver rectangle, he shoved the bag back underneath the bed and sat down next to me.

  "What's that?", I asked, not recognizing the object at all. I had an apple with a bite taken out of it on top of it, and lit up when Jean clicked a button. I could only guess it was a computer of some sort, but wasn't there supposed to be a monitor and a tower? Already I was completely confused as to what was happening, and Jean only turned the thing on. 

Giving me another look that showed complete shock, he stuttered out, "Y-you d-don't know w-w-what a laptop is?" Shaking my head, but with a slight smile on my face showed that I had no clue yet again what he was talking about. The smile was there to replace my laughter, thank god it didn't come back this time. So, this thin rectangle is called a laptop, I could only guess that it was just like a computer, but more mobile...

  "Umm, no. I've only ever used the computers with a desktop and tower, not once have I seen a laptop...", I said. "I'm guessing it's just a portable version of a computer?"

  "Yep, basically. But wow, how did you live your life without this? It's like one of the best invention known to mankind!", he said, picking up his laptop and swinging it in the air. Instead of going full nerd and saying that computers weren't necessary for the well being of a human, I just remained quiet as he pulled up an internet browser, and quickly typed in "Youtube.com". I am guessing that was the one thing that fully made him believe that I haven't used a computer...

  "So, what do you want to watch first?", he asked, looking at me eyes filled with curiosity. Considering I have no real understanding of anything on the internet, I was completely stumped. I remember my friends would try to describe certain videos to me, but the hilarity of it couldn't really be expressed through words. They always said that it was funnier when you watched it, and was impossible to explain it. I was drawing a blank on every video they mentioned, and it was beginning to bother me. The one and only time I get to be able to watch any of the videos they mentioned, and I couldn't remember the slightest description of even one!

  "I-I can't remember any of them...", I said, almost ashamed of myself. But was quickly reassured by Jean.

  "It's alright, I'll just show you one of my favorites and we'll go from there!", he exclaimed, a smirk of delight spreading across his face. As he said this, he began typing something into the top box on the screen, but he typed too quickly for me to be able read it. When the page loaded, less than a second later, it was filled with countless pictures of animals and captions. Jean clicked on the first one and soon enough he enlarged the video and it began to play.

  "What am I watching?", I asked, completely filled with curiosity, as this little circle appeared, going around and around in a hypnotizing manner.

  "You're going to be watching animals doing completely ridiculous things, and you are going to laugh your ass off!", he replied with a laugh. The video soon loaded and a cat appeared on the screen, and was on top of a car covered in snow. It was trying to jump onto the roof of a house, but the snow moved out from under the cat and it ended up diving into the open garage. I couldn't help but to chuckle and give an "Aw" when it didn't make it to the roof.

After that, more clips of animals doing hilarious things continued for at least ten minutes before it was over and Jean was clicking on a new one. Minutes seemed to fly by, from intently staring at the screen to laughing our asses off the seemingly stupid things the animals were doing. At some point, we shuffled backwards until we were leaning up against the wall and crawled under the warm covers. I noticed that this happened during one of the seemingly endless supply of videos, but was soon interrupted by yet another one. Growing later into the night, my head began to droop, but I propped it against Jean's elbow to continue the onslaught of hilarious animal videos. Through the sound of the video, I heard a faint snore coming from above me and only assumed that it was Jean fallen fast asleep. Being too comfortable to move, my eyes slowly began to fall shut, and I drifted off to sleep to the sounds of cats meowing.


	4. Can't Get Him Out of My Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day of college spent mostly with Jean. The thing is, I can't get him out of my head! Since the moment I woke up, I've realized that I've developed a pretty big crush on him... Like an enormous crush...

When I woke up, Jean was still fast asleep next to me, with his head leaning on top of mine. Thank god the door was locked and that no one had seen what had happened. except for me. I'd have no idea how Jean would react, and would prefer that he never knew. I mean, it isn't such a big deal, we just passed out, but someone may get the wrong idea and then we would be tortured about it to no end, and I'd prefer if that didn't happen. Taking a second to look at him, his hair was all over the place, giving him an adorable bed head look... Wait, did I just say adorable?

Blowing off my thoughts, I slowly shuffled away from Jean, and propped his head against the wall, I got out of bed and looked at the time. It was only 6:38am and my classes didn't start 'til about 10:00am, but Jean never told me his schedule. So to make sure he wasn't going to be late, I lightly grabbed his shoulder and shook it. After some shuffling from Jean, he eventually swatted my hand away and grunted to show that he was up. He wiped away the crust from his eyes, and slowly squinted at me, trying to recall what had happened last night. His eyes began to adjust to the dim light and his completely opened, revealing his golden eyes. Silently observing the shining irises, I realized that I've never seen them that color before, but dam were they hot... Wait, WHAT? I just met Jean, I can't be falling for him! We're roommate for god's sake! I need to stop thinking these thoughts, I don't like him, or do I?...

Finally remembering where he was, Jean closed his laptop and set it aside, then threw his covers off to the side. Starling me from my thoughts, I moved away so he could actually get up, and sat on my own bed. He slowly got out of bed, and a ray of the rising sun ran across his face, blinding him in the process. He looked amazing... STOP IT BRAIN! A slight blush ran across my face from looking at Jean, and I could feel my cheeks heating up. Moving away from his field of view, I decided that I needed a shower, both to get away from Jean for a bit and because I really needed a shower. Sleeping in my clothes from yesterday felt gross enough, but I could smell a hint of cologne from something. Smelling my shirt, it smelled faintly of aeropostale's cologne on my shoulder, but the thing was, I didn't wear cologne. I could only guess that it came from Jean's shirt when we slept.

Finally remembering why I woke up Jean in the first place, I stopped smelling my shirt and asked, "Oh, um, sorry. What time do your classes start today? You didn't tell me yesterday, and I didn't want you to miss one..." It seemed odd to ask, but I knew it was for a good cause, hopefully he saw it the same way.

  "Ummm...", he hummed. "I believe they start around ten, but it's alright I need to prepare anyways... Thanks..." The last part was almost whispered, but I still understood that he is still not used to the fact of having a friend. Deciding that know was the perfect opportunity to leave to get a shower, I rummaged through my luggage to find the towel I had brought with me. Not understanding what I was doing, Jean asked, "What are you trying to look for? You've past all of your clothes already." He knelt down next to me trying to get an answer so he could help.

Right after he said that, I found my towel and said, "This!" and flashed a smile. Understanding that I expected to get a shower, he crawled over to his luggage and found his towel almost immediately. Once I realized what he was doing, I blushed immediately of all the thoughts that came into my mind. Sitting there daydreaming, Jean gave me a look that showed concern. I was blushing pretty bad, and blushed ever harder when I snapped out of it and realized that Jean was looking at me.

  "You ok there?", he asked, unable to comprehend anything that I might have been thinking of.

Becoming flustered at this, I scrambled to my feet and replied, "Oh, um, y-yea. S-sorry about th-that..." Trying to think of any excuse to dig myself back out of the hole I was in, I came up with absolutely nothing, and panicked. "I-I, umm, just, ahh, was thinking about something!", I blurted out.

  "Well, I could tell that... Whatever.", he said with the roll of his eyes. "Are you getting a shower or not? Either way, I am." With that, he took off his shirt and threw it tossed it into the corner of the room. Catching myself staring at his back, I turned away, and began to get undressed. The image of Jean's back burning into the back of my mind was going to drive me crazy and I needed something else to think about. Scanning the room, I saw Jean's laptop and tried to remember some of the videos we watched last night. Gaining back some of my composure, I wrapped the towel around myself, and walked out of the dorm, but not without Jean following close behind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We eventually made it to the showers, and there were only a few others in there at the time. Not long after we had left the room, we both realized we had forgotten our shampoo and body wash and ran back to get them. We laughed it off, seeing that it would've been a grave mistake had we forgotten it when we got into the shower. I chose a stall away from Jean, so I wouldn't be tempted to look at him. I needed to get these thoughts of Jean out of my head. We were just friends right? I mean yea, he can be really kind, but he can also be a real asshole too. I don't know why I'm swooning over my newly acquired friend, but something about him make me lose my train of thought.

Trying to get the thoughts out of my head, I realized I was just standing there, wasting the water. I quickly grabbed my shampoo and began to wash my hair. Removing the suds, I could only wish I could do the same thing with the dirty thoughts flowing through my mind. Just clean them and never think of them again, I just seemed too wrong to think of him like that. Running my fingers through my hair, my brain decided that I would think about doing the same to Jean. Running my fingers through his blond mane and maybe kissing him in the process. A blush running across my face and lost in thought, I heard Jean yell across the room telling me to hurry up. I quickly grabbed my body wash and began to clean my body, and the thoughts just kept coming. I was know thinking about him running his hands across my chest and slowly going lower. That's were it crossed the line, I realized what I was thinking and quickly stopped the shower when all the suds disappeared. I noticed that I was having a hard-on and blushed even harder. I can't keep thinking of Jean this way, it'll drive me insane with lust. I need some way to prove to myself that these thoughts will never come true.

Wrapping the tower around me, hiding my erection, I walked over to where Jean was standing, looking irritated. "Wow, you take long showers! You're lucky I like you or else I would've left once I was done!", he said with a grin and began walking back to the room.This was not helping my developing crush on him. Half of me wished that he had left to prove to me that he didn't care about me, but the other half was thankful that he had stayed. I was torn in two between these feuding emotions and I had no intentions on telling Jean about them.

  "Oh, um, thanks...", I said blushing and looking down, knowing that I would him longer than I was supposed to. The walk back was pretty quiet between us, just the sound of alarms going off in rooms and the footsteps of students filling the dormitory.  Arriving at our room, I realized that we would be changing in the same room. I began to blush at the images I would see of Jean. It seems like the thoughts will never go away, but I can't let Jean find out, for the fear of how he might react. Trying to think of some reasonable explanation to not go in, I, once again, had no valid excuse. Walking into the room awaiting my impending doom, more like my dream come true,  walked over to my bed and began to sort through my clothes trying to find an outfit for today. Looking over at Jean, he had already found his clothes and was already naked and putting on underwear. My face becoming bright red, I tried to pry my eyes away from him, but I couldn't. Any second Jean would turn around and catch me, and that would be the end of our friendship. I saw his head begin to turn, and quickly turned my head to look back at the outfit I had picked out. He didn't catch me, thank god, because he didn't say anything that would tell me otherwise, and decided to not look back 'til both of us were fully clothed.

Finally pulling on a pair of socks, I glanced up to see Jean wearing a gray tee-shirt and jeans. I looked almost identical to the clothes he was wearing yesterday, and wouldn't prove to be the best outfit to wear on the first day. "Are you really going to wear that? It's the first day, you should wear something nice, to give a better first impression!", I said. "You should at least wear a collared shirt of some kind..." I saw first impressions with older people to be more important than if I were meeting a friend for the first time. You don't want to go through life making enemies with everyone, and should always have someone to support you.

  "What's wrong with this?! It looks nice to me!", he said, looking down at his shirt. What he mumbled next surprised me, "I don't own a collared shirt anyway..."

  "Then borrow one of mine.", I told him, rifling through my luggage for a shirt that would suit him. Grabbing a black and gray striped shirt, I threw it his way. Catching it, he took off his gray tee and exposed his chest. In that brief window of time, I stared at his chest and began daydreaming once again. I pictured my body up against his, running my fingers through his blond hair, and him kissing my neck. Cutting off my vision of his chest, he pulled over the striped shirt and looked over at me staring at him.

  "Does it look ok? I mean, I've never wore one of these before... The collar bothers me.", he complained pulling at the collar, which was popped up. I got up and walked over to him and fixed his collar. I took a step back and admired how he looked. Even though he looked hot in his tee, he appeared more attractive in the collared shirt. Trying to think of my words before I said something really embarrassing, I continued to stare at him.

Finally thinking of the right words, that wouldn't sound too odd, I replied, "Yea, you look really nice in collared shirts." I added a smile to help reassure his worried gaze at the shirt. Looking at the time, it read 8:00am. As if on cue, Jean's stomach growled a startling noise, making me jump. He became really red, and began to apologize, but I cut him off by saying that I needed to get something to eat also. My stomach, with a mind of its own, also growled in agreement. we both began to laugh and when we settled down, we grabbed our jackets and began to find a place to eat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We ate at a nearby Dunkin' Donuts, which wasn't necessarily the healthiest of breakfasts, but it certainly filled us both.  Jean got a coffee with 3 donuts, while I got a hot chocolate and a blueberry muffin. I could never drink coffee for both it's smell and taste, it was just plain gross for me. Over our breakfast, we talked about our lives up until this point and what classes we had for this year. Jean mostly sat at his computer and surfed the internet, played mindless video games, and his inside of his house for most of the day. He never mentioned any friends, which only confirmed his statement of never having a friend before. His parents were moderately rich, but were always off on some business trip, leaving Jean home alone. He got almost whatever he wanted without question, which seemed pretty luxurious, but he said it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. He was my complete opposite, we shared nothing in common whatsoever. It kind of gives the saying "opposites attract" another meaning, besides atoms.

We shared a single class together, which happened to be one of my more desirable classes, biology. I excelled greatly in both science and math, it came a lot quicker to me than subjects like english and history. It was taught by Ms. Hange, who Jean said that she was a little on the crazy side. Highly doubting his source of information, tumblr, I blew it off as just a rumor to scare the new students that would be entering her class. One of the other reasons I didn't like using a computer, was because that anyone could make up information, post it somewhere, and people will believe it as if it came from a published book.

When we finished our breakfast, we decided to head back to the dormitory, to get ready for the long, boring day ahead of us. Bound to be filled with introductions speeches and lectures about the class itself, we decided to exchange numbers to text each other during these times. On the outside, I wore a smile showing that I was grateful to have someone to talk to during the seemingly endless speeches, but on the inside, butterflies were flying about my stomach because of my stupid crush on him.

We eventually arrived at our room, and soon got our stuff together to prepare for the longest day of our lives. Bag full of notebooks and textbooks for each class, we headed off to biology to be able to get seats next to one another. On the trip to the building, I slowed down my pace to admire the color of the leaves and pick one off a nearby tree. Jean gave me a look that asked what in the world was I doing. To clarify, I said, "Fall is my favorite season... The colors fill the air and everything just looks amazing! Also, I collect a leaf for every special occasion." I held up the newly picked leaf, and continued, "This one will be for my official first day of college!" A huge smile spreading across my face.

With a roll of his eyes, he replied, "Whatever floats your boat... Personally I enjoy winter, the snow gives me yet another reason to stay inside where its warm..." He continued walking, but started to kick up the leaves as he went.

Jogging over to catch up, I asked, "Really? You don't even like the snow itself? It's cold yea, but it's so much fun! You can build whatever you want and it's beautiful to watch fall to the ground!", I exclaimed with a bit of laughter coming through. Imagining it being winter put an even bigger smile on my face. Now, I was looking forward to winter even more, before I was looking forward to it because I would go back to Jinae for a couple of weeks for Winter Break.

  "No, like I have said before, I didn't have anyone to play with, so it was relatively boring by myself...", he mumbled. Now I felt bad, he never really got a good winter and I really couldn't change his opinion on that. He just sits in front of the computer all day to waste time, until the next day starts. His life seemed really depressing compared to mine, but I wanted to change that somehow, but nothing came to mind.

  "Oh... I'm sorry to hear that...", I said, the sadness clearly evident in my voice. I wanted to completely change his opinion on winter, and make it his favorite season for a different reason. Maybe this winter, if Jean decides to stay for the break, I'll stay with him or invite him to join me in Jinae. Deciding that no matter what happens, this year, Jean will have the best winter of his life! This thought greatly changed my mood, and gained me a worried look from Jean.

Soon enough, we arrived at the building where we would receive our first long lecture about the wonders of biology. Walking into the building, it was clearly evident that we were early, because only a few students littered the seats of the room. Walking towards the middle of the rows, we thought that it would be the best location to be able to clearly hear the professor, see the presentations, but still be able to talk to one another without getting caught. We sat down closer to the edge of the row, to be able to reach the door sooner than if we were in the middle, waiting for others to leave. Pulling out my notebook and a pencil, I sat there bored and I wasn't too good at drawing. I looked over at Jean and he had his headphones plugged in and was watching a youtube video. Curious as to what he was watching, I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed at his phone, with a raised eyebrow to show my curiosity. Instead of saying what he was watching, he simply pulled out an earbud, gave it to me, and leaned over to allow me to see the screen of his iphone. It was some animations thrown together, which had no real connection to one another. There was a small series of them, and every now and again, an older scene would be remade to reference the older one.

More and more students came flowing into the lecture hall. The noise slowly getting louder and louder, until Jean's phone couldn't outmatch them and he put it away. I looked around to see the faces of the people that we would be spending the next year with. To my left sat two girls, one was a blonde with bright blue eyes and cute beyond compare to any other girl, and next to her sat a taller girl with dark brown hair and freckles splattered across her cheeks. Between them, their hands were clasped together and every now and then, the blonde would giggle from something the brunette whispered. Assuming they were a couple, I simply smiled and turned back to look at Jean, thinking if we could ever be like that. He wasn't paying attention and was too engrossed in his doodle. Becoming greatly interested in what he was drawing, I tried to stretch my neck to allow me better vision of the drawing, but Jean saw what I was doing and tilted the notebook just out of my line of sight.

  "Hey! Why won't you let me see what you are drawing?", I whined, it wouldn't hurt anyone to see a simple doodle, could it?

  "No, Marco.", he stated, given no explanation whatsoever, and added a glare to further silence me. It made absolutely no sense as to why he would go out of his way to cover up a drawing, just so I had to sit here in torture. Without any explanation either, made my curiosity even worse, slowly eating away ate me. I needed to see what he was drawing, or at least have some explanation to convince me otherwise. After a few attempts of trying to peek at the picture, he added, "I'll show it to you later, just wait until I finish it..." This did the trick for me, I at least knew I was going to see it at some point, which made me happy enough.

Soon enough, the professor showed herself and began to give her introductory speech. She was a middle aged woman, somewhere in her early 30's, and had her brown hair pulled back into a pony tail. She had glasses and talked with great excitement and speed, which almost seemed out of place for a college course. Her speech droned on and on, but still carried that strange energy with it. I glanced over at Jean and noticed that he was in the exact same boat I was in, complete and udder boredom. Being clever, I pulled out my phone and began to type up a message.

**To Jean Kirschtein:**

**Wow, it hasn't even been twenty minutes and I'm already bored out of my mind...**

Hitting the send button, I glanced up and noticed that the professor had switched to presenting a power point with all the stuff we will be learning about in the course. Already knowing quite a lot about biology, I decided that it wasn't really worth it to listen as intently as I normally would. Hearing Jean's phone buzz and him look at the screen, I smirked knowing that he received my text. In less than a second, I received his text.

**From Jean Kirschtein:**

**Ikr, im about to fall asleep**

Trying to decipher what "ikr", I stared at the screen for a good thirty seconds before typing my next message.

**To Jean Kirschtein:**

**What in the world does "ikr" mean??**

Soon enough, my screen lit up with his reply.

**From Jean Kirschtein:**

**O, yea 4got u are still new to computers it means i know right**

Barely decrypting Jean's usage of characters for words, and lack of grammar, I began to type

**To Jean Kirschtein:**

**Oh, ok. I understand, but why are you using letters and numbers to replace words?**

Glancing up from my phone, Ms. Hange was still going through the slides of her slideshow. Looking down, I saw Jean's text.

**From Jean Kirschtein:**

**its just faster to type and still gets the meaning across**

Understanding the logic behind it, I decided to stick with my own way of keying.

**To Jean Kirschtein:**

**I understand, what were the other classes you have after this?**

The conversation continued along until the bell rang out and everyone began to pack up and leave. The professor still had more slides to go through, and said that she would continue them in the next lecture. Jean was headed off to Psychology, while I left for calculus. I knew a lot of the course due to my classes in high school, but decided to retake calculus, for the fear of having forgotten most of it. After about fifteen minutes or so into the lecture, I decided to resume my conversation with Jean and did that for the rest of my day.

We couldn't meet up for lunch since he had a class while I had my lunch break, but we still talked nonetheless. Going to the campus's cafeteria I ordered my food and noticed the blonde girl from my biology class, but she didn't have her girlfriend with her. Since she was seated alone, I decided to break the ice and sit across from her. As I sat down, she looked up at smiled at me, filling me with warmth.

Returning the smile, I then decided to talk, "Umm, hi, I'm Marco, you're in my biology class..." Good job Marco, nothing like embarrassing yourself infront of her. Now she thinks you're some kind of weirdo trying to flirt with her.

  "Nice to meet you! I'm Krista, and you're that kid who was sitting next to me texting right?", she asked, looking adorable. Great, she remembers me for texting during class....

  "Oh, yea, sorry if that bothered you, I was just insanely bored. It seemed like she could talk forever if she wanted to!", I exclaimed. Truthfully, if that bell wasn't there to stop her, she would've just kept going like a river, talking about whatever she felt like. More than half the class would've gone right back to sleep, which I'm pretty sure they did anyway.

  "No, it's alright! My girlfriend was saying the same thing!", she stated. She didn't seem to be scared at all to reveal that it was her girlfriend. If only I had her guts, then I would ask Jean to be my boyfriend... My brain was at it again, filling my mind with more images of Jean and I together as a couple, making my cheeks fill with color. I don't think I'll ever have enough courage to ask him out, it all seems weird... I mean, we only just became friends...

  "Oh, so that girl was your girlfriend? What's her name?", I asked curious as always.

  "Yea, she's Ymir! Just don't let her know that I told you, she doesn't like it when I tell random people that we are dating...", she said, looking down at her food. I looked down at my plate and realized that through our entire conversation, I managed to eat everything on my plate without even noticing it.

Wiping off my plate from anything that may have stayed behind, I replied, "Ok, well I have to go, my next class starts in ten minutes.. Would you mind if I got your number?" Without even answering the question, she pulled out her phone and went straight to adding a new contact. We exchanged numbers, and I waved goodbye, heading off to my next class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 The day droned on, but texting Jean helped distract me in more way then one. Sometimes he would say something, but my mind would read it the wrong way, and I would sit there for a couple of minutes daydreaming about Jean. Then, when I didn't reply back, Jean would send me another text asking if I was alright. On several occasions this happened, and the unlucky person next to me had to witness me be weird for a couple of minutes then watch me blush when I came out of the dream. I'm pretty sure they aren't going to be sitting next to me in the next lecture... Soon enough, all of my courses were done for the day and I decided to walk around the campus, waiting for Jean to finish his last class and admired the beauty of fall. After walking around for ten or so minutes, I found the building that Jean was hiding in for the past hour and sat on a bench.

At some point, I fell asleep and woke up to Jean shaking my shoulder, with his face really close to mine. Quickly realizing how close he was to me, a bright blush spread across my face and looked away. My mind was racing of all the possibilities that scenario could've taken and my heart was pounding at my chest. Finally releasing my shoulder, Jean straightened himself and looked down at my quizzically. Taking a minute to breathe, I got up from the bench and rubbed the back of my head and laughed. Jean simply rolled his eyes and began to walk away.

  "Where are you going?", I asked, not understanding at all why he was leaving without saying a single word.

  "Look at your phone.", he replied without looking back. I pulled out my phone and saw that I had five missed messages, all from Jean.

**From Jean Kirschtein:**

**oh? thats weird**

It was a reply to our previous conversation.

**From Jean Kirschtein:**

**umm hello?**

**From Jean Kirschtein:**

**why arent you txting back?**

**From Jean Kirschtein:**

**u cant just me alone like this i need some1 to talk to**

**From Jean Kirschtein:**

**u either be asleep or dead... preferably the first one. after this is over we are going to get something to eat and u are paying**

Looking up from my phone, I saw Jean standing there waiting for me to catch up. I can't believe he is making me pay for our dinner... He knows I'm the poorer one. Maybe I can make him forget about it and he'll end up paying. I jogged my way over to where he was standing and walked in silence as we made our way to the campus's cafeteria. Knowing that if I didn't say anything before we ordered, I would end up paying for our meals.

  "You don't really expect me to pay for your meal also, do you?", I asked, looking at him with raised eyebrows.

  "You _did_ leave me alone to sit through that boring ass lecture you know...", he replied, giving me one of his signature glares. Unfortunately, he did have a point, we did say that we were to text each other throughout the day if we ever got bored, but I do only have a limited supply of money.

  "True, but it wasn't on purpose! Also, I'm not as rich as you... I saved up my money to have enough to get me through until spring break.", I sort of mumbled. Between my graduation of high school and the beginning of college, I worked a couple of jobs throughout the summer to save my mom some of her money, instead of spending it on me. I had enough leftover to last me for the next four months, until winter break.

With a sigh, he answered, "Fine... I'll pay for you this time instead. Just this once though, so don't think this will be a regular thing." Surprised at his sudden change of heart, I almost wanted to deny his offer, but knew that I wasn't going to convince him otherwise. The look on his face showed determination, and I wasn't going to be the one to try and get in his way.

After he paid for our meals, I thanked him several times, but rolled his eyes almost every time. When I realized that we wasn't going to properly answer me, I just accepted the rolling of his eyes as a "you're welcome". We talked about how boring our day was and any little tid-bits that we could think of. I brought up Krista and immediately smiled, remembering how warm her smile was. Jean then proceeded to tease me saying that I had a crush on her, even after I told him several times that I didn't and that she had a girlfriend. After while of ignoring him, he dropped it and we moved on with our conversation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We finished our dinner and started to head back to the dorms seeing as the sun was beginning to set, and the temperature starting to drop. By the time the dormitory was within sight, the sun had set and the moon began to light up the night, accompanied by the stars. The path lights shone a bright white and reflected off of the cobblestone paths. It seemed like I was in some kind of movie, the area seemed just right just sit there and stare up at the moon with someone. Sadly, the night was to go to waste, since I highly doubted Jean, of all people wanted to be out in the cold to look up at the moon and admire the landscape. My heart began to ache when these thoughts crossed my mind, I don't know why it hurt considering I should only see him as a friend, but I don't. I want to be more than that, but yet, it will never happen.

We slowly walked inside, and walked up to our room. Jean unlocked the door and pushed it open, revealing our room. We walked inside, locking the door behind us and sitting on our beds. For me, it seemed really awkward. The constant battle of emotions made me unsure of how I felt about Jean, being too afraid to even say anything to him about it and also wanting to walk over to him and kiss him. Unsure of what I should do, Jean broke me out of my thoughts, by asking if I wanted to watch Youtube videos again tonight. Seeing as neither of us have any homework assign for tonight, I thought why the hell not. Thinking ahead this time, I quickly got changed into my sleeping clothes, a large black tee-shirt and pajama bottoms. Jean saw me do this and decided that he'd better do the same.

He placed the laptop next to him, got up, and picked out his night clothes and began to get changed. Staring at him out of the corner of my eyes, I watched him get change, and enjoyed every second of it. Trying to tell myself to stop before he glanced my way, I eventually pulled my eyes away to look at something else. When I looked back, He was wearing a dark blue shirt, but was only wearing a pair of boxers to cover his groin. I blushed once again, for what seemed like the hundredth time today, and watched him get under his covers and pat the space next to him. He wasn't too worried about it, so why should I, right?

I crawled across the bed and made myself comfortable, trying not to think about Jean only wearing boxers, but failing miserably. Jean began to pull up Youtube, and typed in another one of his favorite videos. From there, we just kept watching more and more, going to random videos that had no relations to the first video. The thought of Jean's underwear constantly in my mind, made me quite uncomfortable, but would be pushed right out whenever a new video would load.

I night progressed on, and Jean was consumed in the video, while I was trying to fight back the sleepiness. I wasn't winning that battle and soon enough, my head was on his shoulder. Jean looked at me, but didn't say anything about it just continued on watching the video. Fighting with all my might to stay awake, my eyes refused to stay open a second longer and fluttered shut, and soon enough I fell asleep. Before I fell too deep asleep, I felt a hand come up and rest on my head and his fingers gently caress my hair.


	5. A Day To Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco spends the whole day with Jean, feeling like a complete dream to Marco, but only gets better...  
> (P.S. Marley and Me spoilers, if you haven't read the book, read the movie, or already know how it ends, I suggest doing that before reading this chapter, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marley and Me spoilers, if you haven't read the book, read the movie, or already know how it ends, I suggest doing that before reading this chapter, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! (For the second time...)

When I came to, I was leaning against a warm body, slightly rising and falling with each second that passed. Remembering that I had passed out on Jean's shoulder the night before, I realized that I had moved slightly. I wasn't against his shoulder anymore, but against his warm chest, listening to his steady heartbeat. Jean's arm was lightly wrapped around me, keeping me close to him, fending off any nightmares that may have occurred during the night. Too comfortable to even want to get up, I closed my eyes once more and listened to Jean's heartbeat. The constant beat of his heart instantly calming any worries and troubles I might've had, I thought of how nice it would be to have this luxury more often. Smiling at that thought, I began to match my breathing with Jean's and soon fell back asleep.

The next time I woke up, it was due to a finger poking at my cheeks. Each time it was in a slightly different location, knowing that Jean was next to me, still wrapped in his arm, I could only assume it was him. I was moved once again, but not by much. I wasn't on his head, but in between him and his arm, lying on his shoulder. Unable to understand what in the world he was doing, I began to move my arm to swat his finger away, but was stopped by his arm pinning mine to the bed. Opening my eyes, I was met face-to-face with Jean, squinting his eyes at me with his finger still pressing against my cheeks. His lips were moving, but no words were coming out. Studying his lips, I realized that he was counting. He was at the number 16 and still counting, with each number his lips read, he would poke my face.

Finally realizing he was counting my battlefield of freckles, my cheeks began to become red, also seeing that the space between our faces was only a couple of inches. My thoughts began to race as to the million possibilities of what could happen, I could lean up and kiss him, or he could down and kiss me. My eyes glazed over, and became lost in my fantasies.

When I came back to reality, Jean was becoming irritated with the counting because he was now on my left cheek, back in the ones. Sighing, I spoke up, "Twenty-nine Jean..." I said trying to answer Jean's unasked question. He looked at me with his face all contorted, unable to comprehend what I had said, due to his concentration of not messing up.

  "What was that?", he said, still looking at my cheeks and not my eyes. I could tell he wasn't as interested in what I had to say then the interest level of how many freckles were on my face. Deciding it wasn't worth the effort to say it again or even try to get up, not that I wanted to anyway, I laid there comfortably on his shoulder. Taking the silence to study him back, I looked at his eyes, half obscured by Jean's finger, they were again that golden color they were yesterday. Toward the outside, it looked almost yellow with a dark brown rim, but as you came toward the pupil, the color grew darker and little spikes of brown shot from the center. I could look at them all day if I could, but another growl from Jean stopped me. It appeared as though he had given up on trying to count them, and leaned his back against the wall. Deciding that now would be the best time to tell him, I repeated, "There's fifty-two Jean."

He looked over at me, the look of frustration plastered clearly on his face. I couldn't help but to let out a laugh. Normally, I would've found that image to be intimidating, but hanging around Jean recently, I have grown to like it, he looked adorable when he was angry. His anger quickly switching to confusion, he cocked an eyebrow.

  "It's nothing, you just looked so irritated that you looked funny.", I half lied. Although he did look funny when he was irritated, it was far from nothing. My crush on Jean constantly on my mind felt like it would kill me before he had any idea that I liked him. I was pretty convinced that he knew, but he never showed any signs of knowing. Then I realized that his arm was still around me, and that I was still leaning on his shoulder. He didn't seem odd about it like many others would've, this made me curious now. Did he like me back? Then again, this was the only thing that he's done that showed any sign of possibly liking me, so it was highly unlikely.  

  "Oh..." he said, looking away from me, a blush forming under his eyes. I couldn't help, but roll my eyes. He was too goddamn cute, and it was going to kill me if I didn't say anything to him soon, but I don't want to ruin this moment. It didn't seem like the right time to say anything of that sort, so I just decided to enjoy the moment.

Rubbing my eyes to help fight off the sleep, I asked, "Any idea what time it is?" Not really wanting to be late for my classes, it seemed better to know now, to see if whether or not I should go. Pulling his computer onto his lap, he opened the screen and blinded us both. Taking a couple of seconds to get used to the new source of light, the corner of the screen read 11:23am. I groaned, knowing that it wasn't the best thing to do on the second day of school, but then again, it was only the second day of school, and they would just be reviewing stuff from high school. A quick debate going through my head, I decided to ask Jean, "Do we have to? I mean, it's only the second day..."

  "I'm certainly not going, it's up to you.", he said, answering my question more than he thought. I thought that if Jean wasn't going, then neither was I. Obviously, my feelings for Jean greatly influenced this decision, since I would've been in class from waking up earlier. Jean began to pull up his tumblr, and I had no idea what to expect. He hadn't shown me this website before, nor did he really talk about it. My curiosity rising, I continued staring at the screen, waiting for the page to load. To my great disinterest, Jean quickly moved the mouse over the "X" and closed the browser. Suddenly very confused I turned to look up at Jean, but he didn't look down at me. His face was completely flushed, as if he did something really embarrassing in front of a huge crowd. To me, it made absolutely no sense, what could be so bad about that site?

  "Hey, why'd you do that?!", I asked ecstatically. "I want to see what tumblr is..."

  "No you don't.", he said finally looking down at me in the most serious way possible. "Trust me, you really do _not_ want to see tumblr..." This irked me. One of the things I never liked, was being told how I felt. No one could tell you how you felt because they aren't you, and they never will be.

Suddenly feeling the anger swell inside of me, I asked, "Tell me why _I_ don't want to see tumblr, you don't know what I do and don't want, so don't tell me how I do or don't feel!" A little taken aback by my sudden outrage, Jean looked at me, worried. It was definitely out of character for me to act like this, but he should at least know this one thing about me. Immediately realizing that Jean was becoming scared of what might happen, I quickly apologized. Jean didn't know that much about me, and it wasn't fair to him to take my anger out on him, without that knowledge.

I felt ashamed of myself for what I had done, and began to get up, but was stopped by the tugging on the back of my shirt. With a sigh, Jean said, "No, it's my fault, I shouldn't have said that... It's more like tumblr is a kind of place full of really disturbing things, most of which are just... out there..." He said, sort of staring right through me. Suddenly, my feelings of wanting to see tumblr completely changed. The way Jean stared past me, sent a shiver up my spine and made me want to stay away from tumblr at all costs.

  "Ok, maybe I don't want to see tumblr any time soon...", I said, the fear a little too evident in my voice. Snapping Jean back to the real world, he looked at his computer and then looked over at me. He closed his laptop and set it off to the side, and looked back at me.

  "So I'm guessing you aren't going to your classes today either?", he asked, hitting the nail right on it's head. Nodding my head; he stood up, stretched, and let out a yawn. Following his lead, I got up and walked over to the bed that I could barely call mine, since it hasn't been slept in. Completely forgotten the fact that I packed most of my clothes into the nearby dresser, I tried to find an outfit in my bags, but began to wonder where my clothes had gone.

  "You didn't take any of my clothes did you?", I asked, although by the time I finished the question, I realized how dumb it was, since we haven't really left eachothers' side since the other day. Shaking his head, he looked over with a questioning look. Making the mistake of looking over, he was also getting changed, but had taken off his night shirt. Standing there mostly naked, he stared at me with his eyes looking into mine. I could almost swear that I was going to have a nosebleed. His build was absolutely perfect, despite the fact that he stayed inside 24/7. Prying my eyes off of his body, I looked around, spotted the dresser, and instantly remembered that I had put my put most of my clothes in the dresser on the very first night. Feeling completely embarrassed that I somehow forgot this, I walked over to the dresser pulling out the drawers and picked out my outfit. Without looking back at Jean for the fear of getting that nosebleed, I quickly got dressed. Soon enough, we were out the door and headed off to see where we could eat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 We left the campus and went to a relatively close Ihop. Apparently, Jean lived in Trost, and close-by too! He said that the only reason he left was because his parents forced him to leave. It seemed off though because before, he stated that his parents were almost never home, so it wouldn't really seem necessary to kick him out of the house. Jean said the same exact thing to them, but they still forced him out. He stated that one of the main reasons he was so irritated that day was because of that, but also because he was never socially accepted. Feeling sorry him, yet again, I decided that I would pay for our meals, even though he insisted that he at least pay for his own meal. I ordered eggs, with a side of bacon and hash browns, and orange juice, while Jean ordered a simple french toast and coffee. As he ordered, I glared at him knowing that he chose a lighter meal just because I was paying. I mean, yea, it was nice of him to do that, but he did pay for my meal last night, so I figured it was only fair. We talked over our late breakfast about different things that we could do that day, my heart beating faster with each new suggestion.

When the bill came, Jean tried to grab it, but I got there sooner. "I said I was going to pay, and I am going to pay.", I said, giving him a slight glare. "And you didn't have to do that you know..." I knew that he knew what I was talking about because his gaze dropped from mine.

  "I just didn't want you to run out of money because of me...", he mumbled. I couldn't keep my glare on him any longer, I felt slightly guilty for giving it to him in the first place. Knowing that he was going to be miserable if he didn't pay, I handed over the bill. His face instantly lit up, and a large grin covered his entire face. Goddamn, why did he have to be so cute...? It was really unfair, wasn't he supposed to be the too cool kind of guy, who would rather have everyone else do stuff for him? I don't think I could ever win an argument with this guy without feeling some sort of guilt or pity.

We left and decided that we would head back to the dorm room and goof off all day. The walk there was peaceful, not a single soul was in sight on the campus and only the sound of the wind and the crunching of leaves beneath our feet could be heard. Having the "genius" idea of grabbing Jean's hand and running through the leaves as if we were little children, I grabbed Jean's hand and did just that. Catching him off guard, he tripped a bit, but rebalanced himself and continued to run. Laughing the whole time, I kept running, dragging a mostly confused Jean along with me. I wasn't paying attention and stubbed my toe on a rock, tripping myself and falling to the ground, bringing Jean down with me. My eyes were closed, but was still laughing at the situation, but when I opened them, I noticed that Jean had fallen over top of me. My laughter slowly dying down, I stared back at Jean, his eyes staring intently at mine. Sitting there for at least a minute, he realized what had happened and scrambled to his feet, reaching out a hand to help me up. Both of us blushing and looking away from one another, continued that path back to our dormitory.

We reached the dormitory, and climbed the stairs up to our floor, and soon enough were in our room. Thinking of what to do first, we made of list of different activities to do by the end of the day. Once we compiled our list of seemingly stupid things to do, we started off by watching a movie. Jean had an account for this website called Netflix, which apparently let you watch any movie at the click of a button. Scrolling through the movies, I saw the movie Marley and Me and remembered how bad I wanted to see that when it came out, but my mom wasn't able to take my brother and I.

Pointing to the picture of the cute golden retriever, I said, "That one, I remember wanting to see it before, but never got to..." Jean gave a me a suspicious look, then began to read the storyline. I leaned over his shoulder to also read it, not fully remembering what the movie was about. The synopsis told about a newly wed couple who bought a dog to put off having kids. The dog grows up and is still full of energy, as if it were still a puppy, and gives John hilarious articles to put into his newspaper column. The family eventually decides to have kids, and Marley keeps getting himself into trouble.

It sounded hilarious already, and now with even more desire to see the movie I poked Jean and said repetitively, "Play it, play it, play it, play it..." I don't know why I was so pumped for this movie, but I haven't seen too many movies, but the ones I have seen are still fond memories I carry with me. With a groan, Jean clicked the "Play Movie" button and we were introduced to a black screen. Soon enough, the movie began to play, but blasting out our eardrums in the process. Trying to cover his and turn down the volume, Jean dragged the mouse to the volume bar and turned it down enough so we could hear it, without blood threatening to drip out our ears.

Sitting next to Jean on his bed, with our backs against the wall, I moved closer to him trying to get a better view of the screen, but was still having trouble seeing the computer. Obviously getting annoyed by my constant shuffling, he threw his arm around my shoulders and pulled me to his chest, stopping me from moving once more. Something seemed odd, although I was comfortable now and could see the screen perfectly, but I was pressed up close to Jean. At first, I stiffened up, realizing how close I was to Jean, but remembering that we had already slept like this, I relaxed. Then I became curious. Why does Jean do this, but doesn't show any embarrassment behind it? It seemed strange, to hold someone that close and not feel the slightest bit uncomfortable, so I decided to ask while the intro credits were going.

  "Um, Jean?", I asked, slightly looking up.

  "Hm?", he said, feeling the movement on his chest, and looked down, or at least tried.

  "You aren't uncomfortable at all? You know with me, umm, leaning on you?", I asked, trying not to reveal my inner thoughts.

  "No, if anything, it's more comforting... Why do you ask?", he said as he glanced back up at the screen. His words began to echo in my mind, "it's more comforting". Was it just the body contact, the warmth, or the fact that it was just me? I blushed once more, for the thousandth time the week, or so it seemed, with the thoughts of it being me...

  "How so?", I asked, before he was about to ask again.

  "Just an old thing my parents would do when we would watch TV when I was younger, it's just something I liked. But then they had so many business trips, it kind of... stopped...", he said. Jean's life is just one bump in the road after another, slowly creating more bumps as he grows up. Now feeling bad once again, I decided that instead of being weird about it, I did the exact opposite and closed the remaining space between us. His arm was pressed firmly across my chest, and remembering my thoughts from this morning, I confirmed it once again. I could _definitely_ get used to this.

Both of us comfortable, me more comfortable then Jean probably realizes, we watched the movie laughing at all the hell Marley was causing to John. The movie was so happy and joyous, it was bound to be my favorite one out of all the rest. Then, Marley was growing older, as was the family, and Marley's stomach twists once more. When they went to the vet, they said that they couldn't do anything to help him this time and that the only option was to put him down. John stayed by Marley's side until his eyes slipped shut. This broke my heart more than evil act that could possibly happen, I wanted to scream at the computer and yell at everyone who thought that that ending was a good idea. My eyes began to blur, but I brushed them aside. At the same time I put my hand down, Jean's arm pressed into my chest, pulling me as close as humanly possible to him. A tear rolled down his face and landed right on my cheek.

Using his other arm to wipe away any remaining tears, he tried to say in a stern voice, "You didn't see that..." I let out a laugh. Even when he is crying, he still tries to act tough, making me fall that much harder for him. He was down right adorable, there was no other way to put it, besides perfect. The movie continued to be gut-wrenching by making us watch the family bury their now deceased retriever, and having a mini funeral service for him. Once the movie was over and the credits began to roll, Jean quickly stopped it and shut the laptop.

  "I'm never watching that movie again...", he said, his eyes still filled with tears. He tried to dry them away with his sleeve, but to no avail. We needed something to cheer us up, and quick. Remembering that we had made a list earlier of things we were going to do, I reached over and grabbed it off the bed. Mentally crossing off movie, one of the next ones was to watch some youtube videos. Pointing to the words, Jean's memory was renewed and opened the laptop back up. Quickly closing the browser to not be reminded of the movie, he opened a new one and went to youtube.com.

We sat there, still with me lying across his chest, and watched countless youtube videos. We started off watching a video about one of the video games Jean likes to play, but then after several videos, we were watching a video about people who made the food from games in real life. Kind of tempted to go out and buy the ingredients to make said foods, I realized that we don't have any of the appliances to make them. We continued our trend of watching the random videos that popped in at the side of the videos, we ended up with videos that no relevance to the original video we started out with.

Once again, my eyes began to shut, but I'd try to force them back open. I was becoming really tired and knew that I would pass out on Jean's body for the second time today. Soon enough, every time my eyes closed, my head bobbed with it. A familiar feeling came once again, it was Jean's arm, raising and placing itself on top of my head. Gently messing up my hair, his fingers curled around the strands of hair, but kept my head in place as I silently dozed off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I awoke, I heard the strangest noise coming from under me. Already knowing that I was lying on top of Jean, I could only assume that it was Jean's stomach begging to be fed. Having no idea if Jean had even slept like me, I tugged on his arm and he looked down at me.

  "Yes?", he said, he face slightly flushed. God damn it, he was cute... Sooner or later I will have to tell him about my crush on him, whether he likes it or not, but not now...

  "What time is it?", I asked, yawning my words.

  "Ummm, 5:42... Why?", he asked playing dumb, I knew that he well all too well why I asked.

  "You're stomach is speaking to me, it's telling me you're hungry.", I said with a smile. His face's blush grew a darker shade of red, and laughed. He set his laptop down next to him and got up, releasing his arm around me. Already missing his warmth, I mimicked him and got up also. Fixing my hair, I grabbed my sweater and walked over the the door, Jean close behind. After we locked the door, we started down the hall talking about different places we could eat at. We decided that our stomachs were in the mood for Chinese food, we headed off to a restaurant that Jean used to go to every now and then, that apparently "served the best Chinese food ever".

Soon enough, we arrived at the place and sat down at one of the many tables scattered across the restaurant. The place wasn't overly busy, but it had a nice crowd and conversations could be heard from every angle. The waitress came to take our orders, I asked for beef and broccoli with tea, while Jean asked for chicken lo mein with a coke. Waiting for our orders to come in, we talked about what we planned on doing when we grew up, which was short lived, since neither of us really knew. Our drinks came in, while we were quietly laughing at our failed conversation, and the woman was back on her routine of waking around the restaurant and going into the kitchen to receive platters. 

Jean told me of a time when he had actually worked here for a little while, and how one time this one kid thought that you had to eat everything in a Chinese restaurant with chopsticks, even the desserts. He ate a bowl of ice cream with just two thin pieces of wood, I was quite amazed. I had never used chopsticks before because the place we would order our takeout from, never put the chopsticks in the bag. Telling Jean this, his mouth dropped a little, I'm pretty sure he believes that I didn't have a childhood because I didn't do half the stuff a lot of people our age has done.

  "Well today is your lucky day!", he said, a smirk crossing his face. I laughed a little because he didn't know how true that statement really was.

Just to make sure he was talking about the chopsticks, I asked, "How's that?" A smile spreading across my face.

  "I'm going to teach you obviously!", he said, picking up a pair a chopsticks and tapping the together as if he was going to pick something up. "Pick up a set, and do as I do." I grabbed the set of chopsticks off of the table and awkwardly placing them in between my finger, trying to replicate Jean. Several times they fell out of my hands, or I let go because of how uncomfortable I was holding them, but Jean urged me to try again. Almost certain I had gotten the technique right, I tried to close the chopsticks and pick up the napkin, but the sticks just slid right passed one another. Jean being a show off, grabbed the napkin and flung it at me laughing. Now determined to get back at him, I quickly put the chopsticks between my fingers and attempted to pick up the napkin. Getting a firm pinch on the napkin, I slowly lifted it into the air and flung it back at Jean, now it was my turn to laugh.

Our food finally arrived and I was set on using my chopsticks to eat my meal, and so was Jean. Grabbing a piece of beef, I slowly brought it up to my face, but just as it was about to get in my mouth, it fell back to the plate with a little splash in the sauce. After several more attempts at the same piece, I got so frustrated, I put down the twin sticks and stabbed the piece of beef with a fork and angrily chewed it. Jean simply smiled at me and rolled his eyes. We ate our meals slowly and just talked about random stuff we wanted to do; from as early as a couple days away to as late as several years down the road.

When we finally finished our dinner, I realized that we had been here for a little over an hour, and outside was dark, with the exception of the moon's light and the streetlights. We paid for our meals and walked outside, the cool breeze hitting our faces and sending shivers down my spine. Thanking God for grabbing my hoodie, I threw it over my head and shoved my hands in my pockets. We walked in silence, listening to the nocturnal animals come out to play, that cars that whizzed by, and the breeze against the brittle leaves and whisking them away into the wind. When we reached the campus, it seemed to look the exact same way it did yesterday, the moon's light reflected off of the cobblestone path, the path lights glowing white and the leaves littering the ground, making a crunch whenever I took a step.

I decided that it was no or never, I was going to confess to Jean.

  "Hey Jean...", I said, not completely confident in myself.

  "Yea Marco?", he asked looking over at me, his bright golden eyes looking into me. I stopped walking, and he did the same. I didn't really know what to say... Do I just come out and say that I like him? or do I try and build up to that?

  "Umm, I don't really know how to say this but... ummm...", I hesitated. Fear sweeping over me that he may reject me and never want to see me again. I was already this far, and there was no turning back now. "I really like you..." I mumbled.

  "What was that? I couldn't hear you...", he said slowly leaning closer to my face.

A blush breaking out across my cheeks, I repeated, "I really like you... A-and I wanted to know if you liked me back?" My voice breaking towards the end of my question. Jean didn't reply and leaned back to where he was standing. He wasn't showing any emotion clearly evident on his face, which begun to scare me. I began to think that he didn't like me that way and was pondering on how to change dorm rooms. Taking his lack of response as a no, quietly apologizing, I turned away from him and began to walk. A tear making its way from my eye, through my freckles, and ending up at my chin, it fell to the ground. I knew it was a mistake to say anything to him, I knew this was going to happen.

Out of nowhere, a hand grabbed my arm and spun me around, and I was staring into Jean's eyes. I didn't hear his footstep come from behind me, but what came next surprised me. He closed his eyes, leaned in, and kissed me. My eyes almost bulging out of my head from shock, I quickly processed what had just happened and shut them, returning the kiss. My stomach fluttering and my heart pounding against my chest, it seemed like something out of a fairytale.

Pulling away from the kiss, Jean smiled and asked, "Does that answer your question?"

 


	6. One Step Closer To His Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco's dorm room heats up between the two roommates, giving the boys a memory they'll cherish for the rest of their days together. Marco just keeps getting louder and louder, with very little in the ways of silencing him.

Having my first kiss taken from me in nearly a second, I was more than happy. Happy about the fact that it was Jean who had taken it, and that he actually liked me back. Instead of answering his question with words, I decided to kiss him for my reply. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I slowly leaned forward and lightly pushed my lips against his. It seemed odd, I never knew how to kiss someone, but I have seen people from high school littering the halls kissing. It wasn't exactly the most interesting thing to see first thing in the morning... I pushed away my thoughts, reminding myself that I was kissing Jean. Jean began to suck at my bottom lip, just light enough for me to feel it. I never would have never guessed that he knew how to kiss, since he didn't really socialize that much with others well, but I went along with it. His arms wrapped around my body, we slowly parted lips, I just stared into his glowing eyes.

I was just so happy. Everything I could've wanted is now within reach... Jean was finally within reach. A single tear escaped my eye and began to roll down my cheek, and Jean looked almost worried. He lifted his hand from my back and brought it to the tear, wiping it away. He flashed a big smile to show that everything was alright, and it was. Moving my arms down to his back, I embraced him in a hug, burying my face in his neck. Jean, a little taken back by the gesture, sort of stood there awkwardly for a second, then returned the embrace. I could've stood there for the rest of my life, knowing that I was safe within Jean's arms. I lifted my head, against my wishes, and kissed Jean on his cheek, lighting up his whole face with red. Laughing a little bit, I grabbed his hand and we began to walk to our dorm room, the sound of crunching leaves following us after every footstep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When we arrived at our room, I unlocked the door and walked in, Jean following close behind. I kicked off my shoes and lifted my sweater around my head, tossing it onto my barren bed. Jean, not even taking off his sweater, just jumped onto his bed and opened his laptop, patting the space beside him. Without hesitation, I quickly climbed on and moved under his arm, back to my normal spot. Leaning almost completely across his chest, Jean leaned his head upon mine, and started to open up youtube. It seemed like it was going to be another session of youtube, then falling asleep with him yet again. Not completely against it, I decided we could watch a couple of videos, but then we could do something else.

Doing just that, Jean began to start up a video, this time, it was a compilation of these six second videos called "vines". Laughing at a lot of them, we just enjoyed each others' company and continued to watch several of them. Getting tired of seeing the same "vines" appear over and over, I decided to put my plan into action.

I looked up at Jean and asked, "Hey, do you think we could do something else?" Trying not to make it sound like I didn't like watching videos with him, but probably failing miserably.

  "Oh? Did you have something in mind?", he asked pausing the video then looking back down at me, or at least tried.

  "Kinda...", I replied, slowly breaking out of Jean's embrace and sitting up on the bed. "We should get to know each other a little more, now that we're dating, right?"

A blush reappearing on Jean's cheeks when he heard the word dating, he stuttered, "Oh, umm, s-sure." He was too adorable, causing me to blush from it. Both of us looking like fools, I saw that it was better to carry on with what I had planned then to sit here.

  "So, you know the game twenty questions, right?", I asked, just to be sure.

  "Yeeeeaaaaa....", he said, not really understanding where I was going with this.

  "Well, we say something about ourselves and whenever we have something in common with each other, we do this..." I said, then leaned over and kissed him.

His face growing another shade brighter, he stammered, "O-ok, I-I'm fine w-with that..."

My face lighting up with a smile, I thought it was best if he went first, mostly because of the fact that I couldn't think of any questions to ask. "You can start...", I said, looking away.

  "Umm...", he hummed looking at me. "My favorite color is red."

  "Mine's blue...", I said, kind of saddened by the fact that he didn't say blue. "My favorite activity is to read." With that, he leaned over and kissed me, a smile spreading across my face when he returned to his spot.

  "My favorite animal is a cat.", he said looking at me, a twinkle in his eye, showing that he was hoping that I would kiss him.

With a small sigh leaving my lips, I responded, "I prefer dogs... They're more playful, and don't have such mild mood swings." One time, a cat was walking down the street while I was on my way home from school. It was purring and looking at me, making it impossible to resist petting it. I crouched down beside it and began stroking it black and gray fur, as it lifted its head into my palm. Purring quite loudly, it proceeded to roll onto its back, exposing it fluffy stomach. I went down to continue petting it, but it decided that it had had enough and clawed at my hand. To this day, I still cannot trust a cat when they are around. Continuing on with our question and answer session, I said, "You stole my first kiss..." I then looked away, my blush reappearing on my face once again.

A hand touched my jaw bone, and lightly pushed my head to face Jean, then he proceeded to kiss me once again. Not very surprised by this one, I returned the kiss, lightly sucking on Jean's lower lip, like he had earlier. Slowly parting, he looked me in the eyes, refusing to remove his hand or return to his spot, he said, "I don't like being lonely." I don't really think that qualifies as a good revealing trait, since nobody likes to be lonely, but I still gave him his kiss. He surprised me yet again, when he slightly parted his lips, and licked my bottom lip, sending shivers up my spine. As quickly as it had begun, it had stopped, and Jean backed off just a bit, but still left an inch or two of space between our faces.

  "I was forced to come here...", I said truthfully, but knowing that he had too. Meeting him halfway, our lips met, each of us sucking on the others' lip. Breaking off with a small smack of our kiss, I leaned my forehead against his, trying to regain my breath.

After a few pants from both of us trying to catch our breaths, Jean came back with, "When I first met you, I didn't really like you, but you've grown on me... Rather quickly actually." Blushing from his compliment, I looked away, but then remembered about our "game", and I went to give him a kiss.  Instead of meeting me, he quickly moved the smallest bit, making out lips barely touch. Following his lips, and getting progressively more annoyed, I kept trying to steal the kiss he has so far been evading. Soon enough, Jean lost the amount of room he could lean back, and fell against the bed, chuckling in the process.  Leaning over him, I crashed my lips into his, sticking out my tongue to lick his lips. Unexpectedly, he had the same intentions, causing our tongues to meet. It was a whole new experience for me, but I was enjoying it way too much to really feel confused by it. At some point, his tongue had slipped into my mouth, it was a like a game of tug of war, him ultimately winning. My arms beginning to hurt from holding my body weight, I grabbed onto Jean's shoulders and rolled, causing us to switch positions. Seeming unfazed by the change, Jean's tongue restlessly explored my mouth learning every crevasse. I moved my hands from Jean's shoulders, slowly tracing his shoulder blade, and entangling my fingers within his blonds locks.

After a couple more seconds of making out, Jean pulled back, leaving a string of saliva connecting out lips. Both of us sweating and breathing heavily, we just stared into each others' eyes, feeling the adrenaline flowing through our veins. Once we caught our breaths, or most of it, I decided to take the lead, moving my hands around his neck and leaning up to continue our kissing. Determined not to lose, I fought Jean's tongue back into his mouth, so that I could return the favor. Maneuvering my tongue along his teeth and around his tongue, I began to move my hands once more. This time, I moved them to his back and began to trace Jean's spine, slowly moving my finger up and down. To my surprise, Jean let out a small moan in our kiss and mentally wrote down to remember to do that again later.

My breathing becoming harder to get, I pulled back and pulled Jean down with me. His weight being supported by me, my air supply was getting harder and harder to get. Noticing this, Jean leaned back up, but this time straddling me. Trying my hardest not to get a boner, I focused on my breathing, but found myself looking up at Jean. God damn I wanted him badly, but it would be my first time, so I thought it was best not to go too fast into things. Coming down and leaning his forehead against mine, Jean simply closed his eyes. I did the same, and just listened to the sound of us breathing our raspy breaths. Eventually, we settled down a bit, and I moved my hand to his face, just cupping it between the palm of my hand. His eyes opened, revealing the golden irises, filled with a lustful desire.

I leaned in, pulling slightly on Jean's shirt, and gave him yet another kiss, but this time, just on the lips. I felt Jean's arms wrap around my waist, moving up my sides, taking my shirt along with it. I began to suck on his bottom lip, but he pulled away, then started to plant kisses across my face to my cheek. I blushed when I realized that he was kissing my freckles, then he began to move down, following my jaw and eventually ending up at my neck. As soon as his lips touched my neck, the feeling sent great pleasure throughout my body, making me moan. Taking this as his opportunity, he began to kiss my neck more, sucking just a little bit, making the blood rush to that area. To my surprise yet again, he nipped my neck, causing a quick bit of pain to occur, then soon replaced by pleasure as Jean began to nurture the spot by licking it and kissing it some more, causing yet another moan to escape my mouth. I turned my head in the opposite direction, letting Jean have more access at my neck, which he quickly accepted by kissing, nipping, and licking it even more.

Moving his hands up higher and exposing my skin even more, he eventually got it up to my neck and paused just long enough to take it off. While he was busy giving me more hickeys than freckles on my face, I began to work at his clothes also. Thank God he was wearing a zippered sweat jacket, or else he would've had to stop to take it off. Removing the jacket, I began to work at his shirt, but before I did that, I traced his spine once more, causing him to moan into my neck, sending even more pleasure through my body, causing me to moan even louder. Deciding that it would be near impossible to last the night if we kept going at it like this, we thought it was best to discard our bulkier clothes out of the way, tossing our shirts and pants to the ground.

Feeling that I wanted to take some control now, I turned the tables. I leaned up to kiss the handsome figure that was straddling me and placed my hand on his chest, feeling the warmth. Sucking on his bottom lip, I felt Jean's hands travel up my spine, tracing it, and working their way into my already messed up hair. I began to apply pressure to his chest, telling him to lean back. Complying with my request, he leaned back down onto the bed, still locked into our kiss and fingers playing with my hair. Breaking the kiss, I placed kisses starting from his mouth and slowly working my way down. Starting my trek from his mouth, I worked my way over to his jaw, then proceeded to work down to his neck. Returning a little bit of the pleasure, I planted several kisses in one area, then nipped him, causing him to let out a little yelp. Licking the wound, I soon began to hear Jean let out a slow, drawn out moan. Happy with my work, I continued working my way down his body. Planting kisses in the crevasse of his chest, continuing down to his waist. As I reached the dark blue boxers, I thought it would be fun to tease Jean, just for a little bit. Simply planting kisses across Jean's waistline, I waited for him to get frustrated because I wasn't moving any farther, to tend to his throbbing erection.

Soon enough, his voice called out, "C'mon Marco! What are you doing?"

Smiling in my kisses, I replied, "I'm not going to do anything until you ask nicely..."

  "Really Marco?", the sound of sexual frustration clearly evident in his voice.

  "Mmmhmmm." I hummed, sending the vibrations close enough to his erection for him to feel it.

Moaning through his words, he said, "God damnit Marco..." dragging out the word Marco in a moan. "P-please, just p-please..."

Removing my lips from his stomach, I looked at him, a smile moving across my face, "Please what?"

  "God fucking damnit Marco! Could you please suck my dick? Is it too much to ask for?", he practically yelled. Complying almost immediately, I moved back down to wear his cock was pushing against the fabric of the boxers, and let a small breath escape my lips. Sending chills up Jean's body, he moaned out my name. Placing my tongue at the base of his dick, through the boxers, I slowly licked up his shaft, causing Jean's moan to only grow louder.

  "Marco... please... stop teasing... please...", an almost breathless Jean panted out. Before Jean exploded before we actually got to do anything, I thought it was best to stop torturing him. I hooked my fingers underneath the sides of Jean's boxers, he lifted his hips allowing me to fully slide off his underwear, and revealing his cock. I licked up the shaft once again, then slid my tongue across the top of the head. Receiving yet another moan from Jean, I took it that I was doing just fine. Putting my lips around the head of his dick, I slowly began to move my head up and down. Beginning to wonder if I was even doing it right, Jean's hips began to move, making me take more of his shaft into my mouth. Jean, quickening the pace of his thrusts, soon began to make it incredibly hard to breathe. Pushing his hips to the bed, I began to work at my own pace, despite the whimpering coming from the other side of the bed. After several minutes of my head bobbing, Jean's bucking came back, signalling that he was going to cum soon. Wanting the night to last a bit longer, I lifted my head, getting the much needed air, and meeting the look of a very confused person.

  "Hey! I was just about to cum, why'd you-", he asked ecstatically, but cut off when I leaned up and planted a kiss on his lips. The lust very evident, our tongues began to dance once more with one another, soon fighting to gain dominance over the other.

Pulling away slightly, I looked Jean in his clouded eyes, and asked, "Where are you keeping your stash?" At first, he looked a little confused, but then realizing what I meant, he jumped out from beneath me and pulled out his luggage from under the bed. After quickly tearing its contents out of the bag, he pulled out a bottle of lube and a condom. Taking the bottle and squeezing some of the gel-like substance into his hand, I quickly rolled over onto my back after tossing my underwear behind Jean, exposing my ass to him. After he got his fingers completely drenched in the lube, he pressed a single digit into my hole, slowly moving it deeper within me. At first, a yelp escaped my lips when the surprising cold fluid touched my ass, but soon was ignored by the slight pain from the stretching. After working his finger in and out of my hole, eventually loosening me just a bit, he inserted another finger to accompany the first. Going even slower than before and allowing my ass to adjust to the increase in size, his fingers soon reached to the knuckle. Slightly crooking his fingers, he managed to touch my prostate and sent waves of pleasure coursing through my body. I let out a really loud moan, then tried to stifle it with a nearby pillow. It felt amazing, and to my convenience, Jean did it once again. Almost screaming out his name, I bit down on the pillow, trying my best not to disturb any of our neighbors. He finally inserted the third, and hopefully last, finger into my rectum, and working it to loosen me.

Finally, he removed his fingers and ripped open the condom wrapper using his teeth. Quickly wrapping it over his engorged cock, he put a hefty amount of lube and smeared it around, covering the plastic completely with the gel. Grabbing onto my legs, he looked at me with a slight worried look, as if to ask if I was ready. Nodding my head, he slowly began to enter me. For fuck's sake, was he big. At first, all I could feel was my ass trying to widen itself to accommodate to the new muscle entering my body, but then as Jean buried himself to the hilt, it subsided, leaving me with a full feeling. Once I completely adjusted to Jean's girth, I nodded my head to reassure him that I was alright and that he could continue. Slowly thrusting out, another wave of pleasure swept over me, causing a small moan to escape my lips. With that, Jean looked down at me and smiled. I didn't know if it was just because of the moan, or whether he had some thought running through his mind. Either way, he leaned down and kissed me, sucking on my lip, and giving it a little nip.  Leaving my lips, he proceeded to trust back in, quickly this time, burying himself yet again. With this, a loud moan came out passed my lips and was unable to put the pillow to my face fast enough. Jean, not really caring how loud I was, began to thrust in and out of me, filling my body with complete pleasure. The moans just kept coming, and the pillow was doing very little to stop the sound, making it really hard not to blush from how much noise, I alone, was making.

Speeding up his thrusts, Jean bent over and locked me into a passionate kiss. While helping to stifle my ever increasing moans, our tongues attempting to fight, but not having enough control of my mouth, Jean quickly beat me and began to explore my the inside of my cheeks once more. Lost in a world of complete bliss, my body began to act on its own and began to match Jean's thrusts, burying his cock even deeper within me and hitting my prostate. This sent me over the edge, waves of pleasure just coursing through my body. I let out a very drawn out moan in our kiss, and started to pant really bad, I could feel myself getting ready to cum.

In between my pants and moans, I said, "I-I... I'm... g-g-gonna... *gasp*... c-cum..." Taking my words, Jean began to speed up his thrusting even faster, soon sending me completely over the edge. I began to cum, sending the fluids between our stomachs, drenching us. My ass began to tighten around Jean, causing him to moan out my name. Not even slowing down, he gave one final thrust and let out a very loud moan, almost competing with me. After he rode out his orgasm, he fell on top of me, both of us trying to get our lungs to fill up with oxygen.

Pulling Jean into a kiss, but quickly breaking apart due to the lack of air, I said, "That was... amazing..."

Also panting, he replied, "Agreed... That was... simply amazing..." After lying there for a minute or two, the transition from loud moans to almost silent panting, we listened to each others' breathing slowly calm down. Seeing as though I didn't want to go to bed covered in my cum, I went to get up, but winced due to Jean's cock still lodged inside of me. Waiting for his cock to slowly go limp, we just stared into each others' eyes, admiring each other. When my ass finally expelled Jean from it, Jean took off the condom and chucked into a small trashcan nearby, and grabbed his shirt to clean up the mess. After cleaning up the best we could, we threw on our pajamas, and decided that we should sleep in my bed, seeing as though Jean's was covered in cum and a complete mess.

Crawling under the covers, with our heads on the pillows for a change, we thought it was best to enjoy our night together without the computer. Limbs tangled up and the warmth being shared between us, I whispered, "I love you, Jean."

Then from the darkness next to me came a voice belonging to Jean, "I love you too, Marco..." With that, he planted a kiss on my forehead. Wrapping my arms around his back, I placed my head on his shoulder. A similar embrace was given by Jean, except his head was resting on top of a pillow and his hands wrapped in my hair. With that, I quickly drifted off to sleep; warm, comfortable, and in the embrace of my boyfriend.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I plan on creating more chapters soon... Comments are always nice, and well appreciated! Also, if you're interested, I do have a tumblr... enjoy! http://that-quiet-nerd.tumblr.com/


End file.
